Draper's first chapter lists the struggles that literacy specialists and content area teachers encounters. These struggles demand that the two must work together towards the same four aims for increasing adolescents' literacy. Each brings different strengths to the team: teachers know their content area thoroughly while literacy specialists know how to help teachers understand their own thinking so that they may teach more effectively.
I really like the book's layout and style; everything connects together. Draper mentions how teachers and specialists can evaluate their instruction as it matches to the curriculum standards and aims of improving students' literacy. I inferred that Draper also touches on "blind spots" in a content-area teacher's curriculum upon which literacy specialists seek to shed light: Draper specifically mentions that teachers should include varied kinds of text and teach students how to read these texts; I know I almost encountered a blind spot like this one in my Textbook Teaching Sample project where I knew how to read a play (column to column), but I almost didn't realize that my students might not know that (so they might read across the columns). I skimmed this chapter for summary statements (which Draper uses often, and correctly, in the text's paragraphs and sections. I also made connections between the text and the anticipation guide statements. I even changed up my reading pace to (faster to skim summary statements and slower to notice any graphical information like lists or word formats).
Draper, R. (2010). (Re)imagining content-area literacy instruction. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
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